The Straits Times / The Business Times News on Hyflux

Hyflux's Olivia Lum on Forbes rich list

MS OLIVIA Lum, the founder, president and chief executive (CEO) of Singapore's water treatment company Hyflux, has become the first woman to make it to Forbes annual list of South-east Asia's richest people.

At 45, she is also the youngest on the list, said a statement yesterday from Forbes, a leading United States business magazine.

With a net worth of US$240 million (S$404.4 million), Ms Lum came in at 39th place. She also scored another distinction - she is on the cover of the latest issue of Forbes Asia.

Ms Lum was already Singapore's poster 'girl' for achievement against the odds well before this. The tale of how she rose from being an orphan to head of a listed water treatment firm that is the largest in South-east Asia has often been told.

At 29, she had sold her car and apartment here to raise US$12,000 to start Hyflux, which is today one of the best performing stocks in Singapore with a market value of US$650 million.

In the past eight years, Hyflux's revenues have risen by a compounded average rate of 55 per cent to US$53 million last year and are forecast to nearly quadruple to US$180 million this year, said the Forbes statement.

Ms Lum is known justifiably as the 'water queen', but at work she is called the 'pressure cooker' for her hard-driving ways, it said.

Forbes Asia announces the list of 40 richest individuals in South-east Asia in its latest issue, which hits the newsstands today. This is the second such annual listing.

Hotelier Robert Kuok, a Malaysian, again led the pack with an estimated worth of US$5.3 billion, followed by telecoms, power and entertainment tycoon Ananda Krishnan, also a Malaysian, with US$5 billion.

Property tycoon Kwek Leng Beng was third with a US$4 billion fortune, making him the richest Singaporean on the list. The second highest-placed Singaporean was Mr Ng Teng Fong, who controls property group Far East Organization, who made it to fourth place with US$3.2 billion.

Bankers Lee Seng Wee and Wee Cho Yaw also made it to the top 10. Mr Lee is sixth with US$2.7 billion, while Mr Wee is ninth with US$2.4 billion.

The net worth of each individual is calculated based on the current share prices and exchange rates for those with publicly traded fortunes. Privately-held fortunes were based on how much the firms would be worth if they were listed.